The Prisoners’ Committee of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the Gaza Strip organized a memorial ceremony on October 16 to mark the 40th day of the martyrdom of the prisoner, Comrade Raed al-Salhi, the son of Dheisheh camp, assassinated by Zionist occupation forces on September 3, as well as the 16th anniversary of the October 17 operation.

Many comrades participated in the event, including Comrade Jamil Mizher, member of the Political Bureau of the PFLP and leader of its branch in Gaza, members of the Salhi family in Gaza City and the families of prisoners held in Zionist jails.

The organizers raised Palestinian flags and PFLP banners, as well as images of the founders and leaders of the Front, Comrade George Habash, Comrade Abu Ali Mustafa and imprisoned General Secretary Ahmed Sa’adat, as well as the images of the heroic martyr, Raed Salhi.

The event was opened by Comrade Mohammed al-Aidi, who saluted the martyrs and prisoners who struggle for the liberation of Palestine. Comrade Allam Kaabi, member of the Central Committee of the Front and a freed prisoner, delivered the main speech, saluting the martyr as well as the heroes of October 17 who assassinated the extremist racist Zionist minister Rehavam Zeevi.

Kaabi saluted the family and friends of the martyr, especially his mother and his friends and comrades in the steadfast Dheisheh camp, whose youth are currently resisting a systematic and brutal Zionist onslaught targeting the camp, saluting the martyrs and prisoners of the camp and all of its people. He also saluted the members of the Salhi family in the Gaza Strip who participated in the commemoration.

He said that national unity is necessary based on Palestinian fundamentals and resistance rather than on exclusivity or power-sharing. He emphasized that reconciliation and national unity must be organized to support the prisoners and reflect on them in a positive way. He also noted that the failure to lift the punitive measures on the Gaza Strip does not contribute to a positive atmosphere for reconciliation and only deepens the tragedy of life for Palestinians in Gaza.

Kaabi saluted the former prisoner, Comrade Mahmoud Suleiman, who died just days before in Egypt during treatment for cancer after years of medical neglect in occupation prisons.

Kaabi also called for the widest participation in the international days of solidarity and action with the internationalist struggler Georges Abdallah, entering his 34th year in French prison, urging pressure on the French government to release this struggler for the Palestinian cause.

Comrade Khaled al-Salhi, the brother of the martyr, delivered remotely the greetings of the family to the event, expressing their pride in their martyred brother. He saluted the organizing of the memorial, confirming that Palestine is one throughout the occupied homeland and that the martyrs of Dheisheh have fallen on the same road of struggle as the Palestinian martyrs of Gaza, to form a bridge of return and liberation.

He saluted the joint commemoration of Raed’s martyrdom and the October 17 operation, emphasizing that the resistance is still afire on the road of liberation, saluting the imprisoned comrades who carried out the operation, Ahed Abu Ghoulmeh, Majdi Rimawi, Mohammed Rimawi, Basil al-Asmar and Hamdi Qur’an, as well as the imprisoned leader Ahmad Sa’adat. He emphasized that Raed could have chosen surrender to the occupation but he consistently chose freedom despite any cost.

Yasser Saleh of the Mohja Al-Quds Foundation spoke on behalf of the national and Islamic forces’ prisoners committee, in which he saluted the martyrs and prisoners holding the coals of resistance inside the Zionist jails despite their suffering and medical neglect.

The event concluded with a performance of Palestinian national songs by Ahmed Tafesh and Hassan al-Esteir, with great enthusiasm from the audience.